Thursday, December 11, 2008

Celebrating Charlie's 88th birthday

Today Jeannette, Jeannette's Mom and I spent the day celebrating Jeannette's Dad's 88th birthday. The plan for the day began to come together when I heard on the radio yesterday after work that the Space Shuttle Endeavour was being transported on a 747 back to Florida. It landed at Ft. Worth's Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base yesterday afternoon and would be taking off around 11:00am today for Louisanna then on to Florida. Jeannette called her parents to see if they would be interested in an adventure. Without hestitation, hey said yes. Jeannette and I picked up Charlie and Marian around 9:30am and headed for Ft Worth. Just before 11:00am we found an empty lot overlooking the Joint Reserve Base to veiw the take off.

Within minutes of us parking in this lot with hundreds of other cars and trucks, a humungus C-17 Globemaster III Tactical Transport Aircraft took off. It has a payload of 169,000 pounds.

Before I had a chance to set up my tripod and camera the 747 had taken off with the Space Shuttle Endeavour on its back. What a sight.

The last time it stopped in Ft. Worth was in 1997 and I was not able to take off of work to see it. Today both Jeannette and I had planned to take a vacation day. What luck. They say since the space shuttle won't be used after 2010, we would never get another chance to see it. I'm so glad we went.

After having a BBQ lunch at Ft. Worth's legendary Angelo's BBQ, Marian and Charlie guided us to see the house President George Bush and Laura just bought. Jeannette's Mom new exactly where it was. It is very close to their house north of Walnut Hill Lane near the Tollway. In fact, the Bush's will have the same zipcode as Jeannette's parents.

We understand the Bush's also bought the house next door. Maybe it will be for their Secret Service Agents.